2A Work Session 2012 0409 Attachment

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sites to interconnect. DSL A common form of broadband Internet connection. DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line. E-Rate A Federal program that provides subsidy for voice and data lines to qualified schools, hospitals, CBOs, and other qualified institutions. The subsidy is based on a percentage designated by the FCC. CTF benefits are calculated net of the E-rate subsidy. E911 Enhanced 911, an emergency service that automatically sends phone number and location information to the operator. E911 comes in handy, say, when you need to get emergency help and are unable to speak or don't know your location. Ethernet The most common networking standard in the world, formally known as IEEE 802.3. Fixed wireless The operation of wireless devices in a specific location, such as an office. This term is usually reserved for devices that need to be plugged in to operate, such as a desktop computer. If it runs off a battery, it's not fixed wireless. The point-to-point point signal transmissions occur through the air over a terrestrial microwave San Leandro Commercial Broadband Strategy – City Council Workshop Draft 9 April 2012 Tellus Venture Associates Page 64 platform rather than through copper or fiber cables; therefore, fixed wireless does not require satellite feeds or local phone service. The advantages of fixed wireless include the ability to connect with users in remote areas without the need for laying new cables and the capacity for broad bandwidth that is not impeded by fiber or cable capacities. FTTN Fiber To The Neighborhood: A hybrid network architecture involving optical fiber from the carrier network, terminating in a neighborhood cabinet with converts the signal from optical to electrical. FTTP Fiber To The Premise (Or FTTB Gigahertz A measure of electromagnetic wave frequency equal to one thousand million (1,000,000,000) hertz, often abbreviated as GHz and used to specify the radio frequency used by wireless devices. 802.11a networks operate at 5 GHz. 802.11b and g networks use 2.4 GHz, which is susceptible to interference from nearby cordless phones and microwave ovens that use the same frequency. GPON Gigabyte-Capable Passive Optical Network: GPON uses a different, faster approach (up to 2.5 Gbit/s in current products) than BPON. GSM Global System for Mobile Communications: This is the current radio/telephone standard in Europe and many other countries except Japan and the United States. Hub A common connection point for devices, such as computers and printers, in a network. ILEC Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier. An ILEC is a telephone company that was providing local service when the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was enacted. Compare with CLEC, a company that competes with the already established local telephone business. Industrial grade Broadband service where the customer plays a much greater role in provisioning and supporting the service, including buying different elements from different vendors and managing installation and support. Speeds would be higher – perhaps as high as a Gigabit per second or more – and quality of service levels could be as high as Tier 1. Comcast’s Business Class service or AT&T’s business DSL service are examples examples of San Leandro Commercial Broadband Strategy – City Council Workshop Draft 9 April 2012 Tellus Venture Associates Page 65 commercial grade service. A DS-3 or dark fiber strands are examples of industrial grade service. Inet Institutional Network. Provides a high-speed connection between government, educational and community entities. It is often negotiated with a cable franchise, in exchange for using right-of-way in a jurisdiction. ISP Internet Service Provider: A company providing Internet access to consumers and businesses, acting as a bridge between customer (end-user) and infrastructure owners for dial-up, cable modem and DSL services. LAN Local Area Network: A geographically localized network consisting of both hardware and software. The network can link workstations within a building or multiple computers with a single wireless Internet connection. Last mile Infrastructure (e.g. fiber optic lines, distribution boxes, equipment vaults, poles, conduit) that provides broadband service to end users or end-user devices (including households, and businesses). Local Loop A generic term for the connection between the customer’s customer’s premises (home, office, etc.) and the provider’s serving central office. Historically, this has been a wire connection; however, wireless options are increasingly available for local loop capacity. MAN Metropolitan Area Network: A high-speed date intra-city network that links multiple locations with a campus, city or LATA. A MAN typically extends as far as 50 kilometers. Mbps Megabits per second: 1,000,000 bits per second. A measure of how fast data can be transmitted. Middle mile Broadband infrastructure that does not predominantly provide broadband service to end users or to end-user devices, and may include interoffice transport, backhaul, Internet connectivity, or special access. Middle mile facilities are the link between last mile facilities and major interconnection points, such as those that form the core of the Internet. Modem Short for modulator/demodulator. A modem modulates outgoing digital data into analog signals so they can be sent over copper San Leandro Commercial Broadband Strategy – City Council Workshop Draft 9 April 2012 Tellus Venture Associates Page 66 phone lines, and demodulates incoming analog signals into digital. Overbuilders Building excess capacity. In this context, it involves investment in additional infrastructure project to provide competition. PON Passive Optical Network: A Passive Optical Network consists of an optical line terminator located at the Central Office and a set of associated optical network terminals located at the customer’s premise. Between them lies the optical distribution network comprised of fibers and passive splitters or couplers. In a PON network, a single piece of fiber can be run from the serving exchange out to a subdivision or office park, and then individual fiber strands to each building or serving equipment can be split from the main fiber using passive splitters /couplers. This allows for an expensive piece of fiber cable from the exchange to the customer to be shared amongst many customers thereby dramatically lowering the overall costs of deployment for fiber to the business (FTTB) or fiber to the home (FTTH) applications. Rights-of-Way Legal rights of passage over land owned by another. Carriers and service providers must obtain rights-of-way to dig trenches or plant poles for cable systems, and to place wireless antennae. Router An intelligent network device that goes one step beyond bridging by converting address-based protocols that describe how packets move from one place to another. In practice, this generally comes down to translating between IP addresses and MAC addresses for data flowing between your local network and the Internet. Many people use the term interchangeably with "gateway." You must enter the IP address of your router when configuring network settings manually. Subscribership Subscribership is how many customers have subscribed for a particular telecommunications service. Switched Network A domestic telecommunications network usually accessed by telephones, key telephone systems, private branch exchange trunks, and data arrangements. T-1 The T-1 standard was introduced in 1961 in order to support a bi-directional speed of 1.5 Mbps at a high quality-of-service level, using the copper wires of the time. Because it is a dedicated and managed circuit, its performance is usually San Leandro Commercial Broadband Strategy – City Council Workshop Draft 9 April 2012 Tellus Venture Associates Page 67 substantially better than shared services such as DSL or cable modem, even in cases where the claimed top speed of those shared services is many times higher. A T-1 circuit is generally considered to be the lowest level of service that can be described as industrial or carrier grade. Telco An abbreviation for Telephone Company. Telecommunications Refers to all types of data transmission, from voice to video. Throughput The amount of data that can be transmitted in a given amount of time. Throughput is commonly measured in bits per second. (Although throughput is not really a measurement of speed, most people, including us, use the word "speed" when talking about a high-throughput network.) Universal Service The idea of providing every home in the United States with basic telephone service. Videoconferencing Conducting a conference between two or more participants at different sites by using computer networks to transmit audio and video data. VLAN Virtual Local Area Network. A network of computers that behave as if they are connected to the same wire even though they may actually be physically located on different segments of a LAN. VoIP Voice Over Internet Protocol: A new technology that employs a data network (such as a broadband connection) to transmit voice conversations. VPN A method of creating an encrypted tunnel through which all traffic passes, preventing anyone from snooping through transmitted and received data. VPN stands for virtual private network. WAN Wide Area Network, A collection of local area networks connected by a variety of physical means. The Internet is the largest and most well-known wide area network. Wide area network is generally abbreviated to WAN. WiFi Short for wireless fidelity and is meant to be used generically when referring of any type of 802.11 network, whether 802.11b, 802.11a, dual-band, etc. The term is promulgated by the WiFi Alliance. Any products tested and approved as "WiFi Certified" (a registered trademark) by the WiFi Alliance are San Leandro Commercial Broadband Strategy – City Council Workshop Draft 9 April 2012 Tellus Venture Associates Page 68 certified as interoperable with each other, even if they are from different manufacturers. A user with a "WiFi Certified" product can use any brand of access point with any other brand of client hardware that also is certified. Typically, however, any WiFi product using the same radio frequency (for example, 2.4 GHz for 802.11b or 11g, 5 GHz for 802.11a) will work with any other, even if not "WiFi Certified." Formerly, the term "WiFi" was used only in place of the 2.4 GHz 802.11b standard, in the same way that "Ethernet" is used in place of IEEE 802.3. The Alliance expanded the generic use of the term in an attempt to stop confusion about wireless LAN interoperability. WiMAX Another name for the 802.16 wireless networking specification used for long-haul and backhaul connections. Wireless ISP A company that provides wireless Internet access. The term is often abbreviated to WISP. WLAN Wireless Local Access Network, a LAN that can be connected to via a wireless connection. Sources: Tellus Venture Associates, Associates, California Public Utilities Commission, Neratech, Wikipedia. San Leandro Commercial Broadband Strategy – City Council Workshop Draft 9 April 2012 Tellus Venture Associates Page 69